UN Ambassador: the relation with Saudi Arabia has changed significantly
Shafaq News/ US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is not going to be the same.
Thomas-Greenfield addressed the Biden administration's decision not to directly sanction Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the US intelligence community determined is responsible for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, despite a campaign promise to punish senior Saudi leaders.
"The relationship with Saudi Arabia is not going to be the same, it has changed significantly and President Biden has made clear that we will hold those people accountable," she said, pushing back that critics' assertion that the Biden administration was giving a murderer a pass was "not the case."
She pointed to the administration's actions on the issue -- the release of the US intelligence report on Khashoggi's murder, visa restrictions "against those who were involved" and sanctions. The report found that bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill the Saudi journalist, and neither the visa restrictions nor the sanctions list directly impacted the prince.
When pressed on whether Biden was demonstrating sufficient accountability, Thomas-Greenfield noted that the administration had taken such actions after being in power for less than two months.
"Those actions have been taken in public and those actions will continue to be strengthened over the coming months," she said. "I think that anyone that has any doubt that the president is not serious just needs to look at what he's done in the short period of time that we've been in the administration and there's more to come."
